Icarus
by Pardra
Summary: X's strange behavior has the misfortune of coinciding with a Maverick uprising. And Zero is not prepared to deal with the cause. Who knew a mind was such a dangerous thing?


Summary: X's strange behavior has the misfortune of coinciding with a Maverick uprising. And Zero is not prepared to deal with the cause. A pacifist and war are a bad enough combination, but when the soldiers are your offspring?

Warnings: None for this chapter. They'll be up next update.

A/N: I apologize for any errors, it's late. I tried to edit chapter two of Ars Moriendi and post that, but this wanted out into the world instead. Staring at an 11+ hour roadtrip. I'll be sure to work on one of those 40 plotbunnies for you y'all while I'm there ^_^. I'm off to the beach!

Oh, and: There is foreshadowing here...

Icarus

Zero had only been awake for a few bleary moments, blinking up at the curved dome of his pod, but he knew _X_ was up. A little tingle of excitement jarred unpleasantly through his network link with the smaller android, rudely knocking away the fuzziness that was sleep trying to reclaim him. Zero groaned in frustration and shut him off from the private channel. Not that he wanted to be telepathically linked to X all night and share his sickeningly sweet memory-replay of Dr. Light's conversations with him every night, but said Reploid was extremely intolerant of Zero's habit of turning off his internal alarm and retreating into blissful hibernation again.

_Sleeep, come back to me my love, it doesn't matter that X doesn't approve of our relationship- even if he does think he's my father._ Zero grumbled and disconnected the wire at the nape of his neck. The wire was unnecessary for a good night's sleep, but it had been a present from Axl because it ensured a deeper more comfortable sleep. X had threatened that beloved cord more than once.

He didn't understand X's frustration; he woke up immediately for Maverick attacks, and he was never more than fashionably late to train with Unit 0, but X, whose systems seemed to have no lag when functioning at five in the morning- no, make that four forty-seven -and even thrived when awake before the majority of the base, had to drag Zero awake with him. Crazy morning people. So they had formed a compromise, being that the two would keep a channel open between them at night. In the morning, X would send a very persistent alarm and Zero would get up. X wouldn't blow a gasket, and Zero would (hopefully) never again wake up to a tiny, furious android kicking in the screen of his charger pod..._ever_.

Still, it was too early, even for his early-bird friend, but X was awake and apparently worked up about something. But he wasn't getting up just to check on X, make sure he wasn't getting into trouble...

But what _was_ he doing? Was there a new Operator in HQ? No, X wasn't a flirter the way he was.

Had a shipment of new gear come in? No, because X's old man kept his kid as a one-droid arsenal, he had no need for any of the equipment stocked for the Hunters- it was all inferior to what he already had.

Maybe... there were some new lit-chips in the library? Gah…No. Bookworm that he was, nothing short of Dr. Light's autobiography would make him react like that to a book.

There was nothing for it: Zero knew his curiosity wouldn't just let this go. And, somehow, he managed to drag himself to the 17th Unit's quarters without passing a single soul to wonder about the Crimson Hunter's bedraggled and haggard appearance. And he hadn't tripped over anything: For an irritated, groggy Zero- whose progress to X's room was more of a drunken meander than a simple walk -that was an accomplishment.

He wandered down the corridor to X's quarters and stood wavering and glaring at the door as it scanned him and slid open with painful slowness.

Even the stupid door knew it was too early to be moving around.

"X" ...X didn't, apparently, because the room was empty and the window was wide open.

What reason could he have for being outside? It was cold; but X's window faced the sunrise, and he seemed to like those. Had he climbed out onto the roof?

Zero stuck his torso through the window, canted upward, but there was no blue android sitting on the eave. He called out, to be certain, and got silence in reply. Zero huffed in annoyance and unblocked X from his network list, trying to message him. Again, there was a distinct lack of friend on the other end.

_Where_ is_ he?_ Zero asked himself, perhaps _slightly_ concerned now. But as he pulled himself back into X's quarters a flash of blue caught his eye. He focused his attention on the ground level and saw, lying discarded and tilting listlessly toward the lawn, a familiar blue helmet. Zero felt a sick twinge in his gut but dismissed it, X wouldn't have been ecstatic if some Maverick had been kidnapping him- unless Zero wasn't quite as charismatic as he thought he was, but he didn't think he'd aggravated X _that_ much.

Zero's eye roved across the perfectly groomed grass to settle, with some relief, on a set of footprints, vibrantly green against the frosted grass and too small and light to belong to any Irregular.

"X... What _are_ you doing?"

xxXxx

X's feet pounded on the concrete, each stride in correspondence to his heart's beating, the wind yanked savagely at his hair. Steel and pavement flashed underneath him as he leapt- as he took flight -only to be weighted down by his body, while something inside him sang a wild, unearthly song, it told him _run faster, run harder_ and maybe if he did he could grow wings. He would leave the bloodstained ground behind and clear that lightening horizon; feel the sun's rays burning warmly in his core like Father's hugs, making him feel alive and loved. He would be beyond where anything touchable goes- where there was no such thing as human or machine, and where this world meant nothing. Maybe his family was out there.

He was panting- with excitement, or exertion, or maybe his body was afraid? -as he leaped once more and then there was nowhere else to go. Still he ran to the far side to perch on the eave and stare into the sun, a glaring red beacon stretching beyond the city, as his body struggled and shivered in strain, and his E.A. System screamed that it had been burned out.

The adrenalin of fighting without its repulsive consequence; was this what the others felt on missions? X stretched his arms wide, the pale sun shattering off his gauntlets. If death was the closest thing to peace this world could come, then this grey, cold morning saw this city dead: because, for a moment, there was peace, and it was so much more than he thought it would be.

The breeze smelled sweet up here, almost free of city pollution and it felt gentler as it drifted through his hair. The sun lifted up above the rooftops, inviting the inhabitants of the city to wake up. X tilted his head back and felt the sun warming his skin, sensors expanding lightly under his skin. He felt the heat swelling inside him, sweet and wild, until it bubbled up to his vocal processors and burst out as laughter.

"X!" _Father?_


End file.
